As we live in an increasingly busy society, more and more time-poor people are searching for the perfect balance between convenience and nutrition. As a result, meal replacement drinks have skyrocketed, but what does it mean for our eating habits?
I have just landed back in London after a gruelling 14-hour flight from Hong Kong – my first long-haul flight to see family since the pandemic. The first thing I see isn’t a loved one waiting for me at the arrivals or a cabbie holding my name on a card, but a big black and white Huel vending machine greeting me at Heathrow airport next to the baggage claim. Maybe I was delirious after being packed in like a sardine with no sleep, but why on earth would I want a meal replacement vending machine straight off a plane while I waited for my luggage to arrive?
After my encounter with ‘The world’s number one complete food’ (their tagline, not mine), I suddenly started to see it here, there, and everywhere. From supermarket shelves to service stations and clogging my social media feed, all aggressively trying to get me to buy their products. Huel had become the new Shen Yun, the inescapable classical Chinese dance and music show advert that’s been seen on flyers, tubes and buses and will continue to live rent-free in our heads for years to come.
Meal replacements were founded on the principle of stripping food back to the basics of nutrition. Leading brands such as Soylent, Huel, YFood, Slim Fast and Protein World come in the form of bars, drinks, ready meals and powders, designed for busy people who want nutritious food on the go that are aimed at the weight-conscious or fitness and muscle-obsessed. Over the years, they’ve gained such a cult-like following that they count Idris Elba and Jonathan Ross as investors in Huel and even call their die-hard fans “Hueligans”.
According to Bridget Benelam, nutrition communications manager at British Nutrition Foundation, meal replacement products are convenient and can help people towards their goals such as weight loss, but they cannot replicate the complex range of compounds needed in a healthy, varied diet. “However comprehensive the nutritional content of a product may be there are things missing such as fibres and natural plant chemicals like polyphenols,” she explains. “The levels of nutrients such as sugar, protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals vary. For example, those designed for keto diets often have high levels of protein, whereas others aim to provide a complete range of nutrients needed for good health. Some products may be high in sugar, so it’s a good idea to check nutrition labels.”
Convenience, health and money are the main pulling factors of these meal replacements. However, the latest Huel ads have been banned in the UK for misleading the public about cutting food bill costs and claiming that their shakes were cheaper and healthier than a traditional diet. They’re not the only ones with big claims – who could forget the controversial Protein World advert in 2015 where a model in a bikini asked us if we were ‘beach body ready’?
“Marketing and advertising are powerful tools that change our food purchasing decisions,” Claire Baseley, a registered nutritionist who’s a regulatory expert and specialises in the meal replacement product market. “Regardless if it’s good or bad press, people are influenced subliminally.”
Baseley states that this type of aggressive marketing isn’t anything new. First, there was the SlimFast diet shake fever in the early 80s and the Special K diet that dominated the noughties, which suggested people could drop a jeans size in two weeks if they ate cereal for breakfast and lunch. This kind of approach has been ingrained in our dieting culture for decades, but it doesn’t teach us what healthy eating is.
“There's a big grab-and-go mentality and less reliance on formal meal times,” she explains. “A lot of convenience foods are very indulgent and manufactured with a lack of focus on whole foods and cooking from scratch. I'm certainly not being judgmental of anybody who does rely on convenience foods because we all lead busy lifestyles, but overall, it's leading to a less healthy diet and exacerbates an existing problem.”
For Karina Walker, a 26-year-old nurse in Brentwood, who has been trying Huel four times a week for lunch in the past few months. She claims it’s not so much about the enjoyment of eating, but ensuring she gets the right nutrients when options are limited.
“When I was staying in London for work, the healthy food options on offer were so bad. I had a choice between either a Pret egg mayo sandwich or a supermarket salad meal deal – both loaded with an unnecessary amount of mayo,” she explains. “I really love the banana complete meal Huel shake after a morning yoga before walking to work. It’s a convenient breakfast that makes it easy to portion control so I can keep track of how many calories I’ve had and without any meal prep.”
Meal replacements may be fuss-free and meet all the nutritional requirements, but they don’t take into consideration the joy of eating and the social aspect of sharing a meal with people you love. A 2017 research paper from the University of Oxford suggests that the more people eat with others, the more likely they are to feel happy and satisfied with their lives.
“Food is so tied up around mental health and I can see how meal replacements fall into that category where it can be triggering,” Benelam explains. “A lot of people lost their sense of taste during the pandemic and it deeply affected food enjoyment and how these products just don’t get that at all.”
Food is more than just fuel – it’s culture, it’s civilisation, and it brings small moments of happiness on otherwise bad days, which you certainly won’t find in a bottle in an airport baggage claim.